September 30th, said the apparent leaked release list, which has been disproved on so many levels that we’ll not be using those as a source in the future.  Regardless, Naughty Dog have confirmed that the real release date for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is two weeks later, October 13th.  If you’re the sort of person that believes shops won’t have ample supply of a PlayStation 3 game on launch then get your pre-orders in, and if you’re based in the States you’ll be no doubt surprised to learn that SCEA have inked deals with four different retailers, all clambering for your dollars.

Firstly, should you pre-order with Amazon.com, you’ll get a treasure map which will highlight secrets in the game.  The utterly bonkers-sounding Game Crazy will give you a “currency multiplier” for use in multiplayer which will mean your in-game currency bonuses will unlock faster for a limited time.  Gamestop customers will get first dibs on the multiplayer demo (the beta of which I personally thought was a waste of time) and a special Revenge Attribute booster, and finally, Bestbuy – if you pre-order with them you’ll get a Golden Gun modifier.  It won’t make the game as good as Goldeneye, but will add a bit of bling to your shooters.

Our advice?  Buy it from an independent – you’ll get bollock-all in terms of bonuses but you won’t be cheating your way up the ladders, you’ll pay less for the game itself and you won’t feel bad about funding multinational billion dollar corporations when honest retailers are trying to make a living.  No news on the European bundles but it’s safe to say that Uncle Bob’s Discount Games Shop won’t be offering any of the above fluff that Sony seem to think we want – the whole pre-order this and get that trend annoys me on some level but I can’t quite put my finger on why exactly.  Perhaps I just need a map.

Source: Kotaku, tips: xzero1299-PR, jonny_bolton, colmshan1990